modern government or critiquing the capitalist system that encompasses us. There was no The Handmaid’ s Tale or The Bluest Eye to invoke thinking outside of the standard; there were only bland romances and academic texts used in classes.
In theory, the sponsors of students in school should be stronger than those of prisoners, yet there is no comparison to Malcolm X, especially not one who came out of public school after hearing a single story of the world outside of America. To some fault, it would be logical to blame the teachers for withholding the truth from us, the vulnerable youth. However, the required curriculum prevents teachers from teaching outside of what is allowed. Even teachers have sponsors, and they continue to press the single-story ideas.“ Land of the free, home of the brave.” At least in America you have access to education that people in Africa don’ t.
Brandt clarifies in her piece that the sponsored do not always have to be in agreement with their sponsor, noting that actually many of the relationships conflict( 166). However, it is important to recognize the significance of having a person introduce literacy to an individual, opening up their mind to further ideas. The idea of literacy through history, as Brandt puts it, always required“ permission, sanction, coercion, or, at minimum, contact with existing trade routes”( 167), meaning that there must be an inherent power of the sponsor to essentially persuade a vulnerable and less powerful person into acquiring that form of literacy. The difference between reciting the Pledge of Allegiance as a child and studying classic literature in college is that my discourse has expanded into having less space for being persuaded by someone with more authority and instead leading me into critical thinking, where I can critique those who originally taught me those ideas.
Adichie gave a great example in her TED Talk about the single story. Someone had mentioned that in one of her novels about a Nigerian family with an abusive father figure, they couldn’ t believe that men, in general, in Nigeria, were abusive. Adichie responded to the person by telling them,“ I have just read a novel called American Psycho, and that it was such a shame that young Americans were serial murderers”( Adichie). Her example shows that drawing generalizations based on a limited perspective – a single story – is what causes harmful stereotypes. Using Adichie’ s work as a sponsorship for literacy, one can gain a larger worldview of what life outside of their own can look like, following in the footsteps of Malcolm X and his ideas.
As I have grown and reflected on the education that raised me, I can see that the mantra“ Land of the free, home of the brave,” really meant nothing in the larger picture of my limited sight. Where I was considered free in a classroom, it may as well have been a mediocre prison, locking away the thoughts of true literacy.
36 TEMPO MAGAZINE— SPRING 2025